Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi
Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi, originally published in Japan as Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! (ドラゴンボールZ Sparking!, Doragon Bōru Zetto Supākingu!), is a fighting video game released for the PlayStation 2 in Japan on October 6, 2005, and in North America on October 18, 2005. The game was developed by Spike and published by Atari and Bandai in the U.S. and Japan, respectively. The game features 58 playable characters with a total of 90 playable forms from the various TV series and movies. In addition, this game has fully destructible environments. In October/November 2006, Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2 was released as the game's first sequel. Overview Name The "Sparking!" in the Japanese title references both the first and last word in the first opening theme to the Dragon Ball Z TV series, "Cha-La Head-Cha-La" (performed by Hironobu Kageyama). However, the opening theme to the game is the TV series' second opening theme, "We Gotta Power" (featured in the Japanese version; the American and European versions includes a different, non-vocal song), which is also sung by Hironobu Kageyama. The "Budokai Tenkaichi" title of the North American version is a rearranged version of Tenkaichi Budōkai (天下一武道会, roughly "Strongest Under the Heavens Martial Arts Tournament"). In the series, the Tenka-ichi Budôkai is a gathering of fighters in a competition for glory, fame, and prize money. The game is not considered a part of the ''Budokai'' series of games, despite its misleading title. In addition to a completely different game engine, the game was developed by an entirely different company (Spike as opposed to Dimps). The game is also titled differently from the rest of the Budokai series in Japan. Were it a true Budokai game, it would have been Dragon Ball Z 4 in Japan. Speculation on the English re-title is that Atari chose to market the game as part of the Budokai series in order to capitalize on a pre-existing market of fans already familiar with said game series. The English version also uses a great deal of sound effects and background music made for the Budokai series. Gameplay The game is quite different from the often-compared Budokai series; it uses a "behind-the-back" camera perspective. Many say that the game feels like a combination of the Budokai series and the game engine from Dragon Ball Z: The Legend for Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Although the engine is more like a typical third-person shooter, it is difficult to master. Unlike the Budokai series, there are no in-game transformations, but characters can also be selected from the get go in their initial transformation (for example, starting a battle in Super Saiyan, instead of base form). Playable characters Despite not being a part of the series, the vast majority of characters from the Budokai series once again make an appearance. Additional villains such as Zarbon and Dodoria from the first Budokai game (but not present in the two sequels) appear in the game's roster (though not present from the Budokai series are Kaiôshin, Uub, and Yi Xing Long). Some of the characters making their first-ever playable appearances are Janemba, the Great Ape, Baby Vegeta, and Super #17. There are various classes of characters with special abilities that alter the battle: * Jinzôningen (Artificial Humans) - Will not show on radar unless locked on to. Cannot charge Ki (unless ki gauge is full, then may charge as normal to enter Max Power mode). Energy absorption models gain ki by absorbing incoming energy dan attacks. Unlimited energy models constantly replenish ki at a consistent rate. The gauge can also be filled as normal by landing successful melee attacks, just like any other character. * Large Characters (ex: Broly) - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks. The characters that have this "Brick wall" effect are Broly, Bojack, Super Trunks, Great Ape, Great Ape Vegeta and Android 16. * Great Ape - Do not flinch from smaller characters' melee attacks, and cannot be thrown or hit with a Dragon Dash-type finishing move. * Scouter (ex: Bardock) - Can lock onto an opponent from anywhere using the scouter, however it takes a few moments for them to turn the scouter on and then begin looking around, but the scouter is broken when the character takes a certain amount of damage. The characters that have scouters include: Raditz, Nappa, Scouter Vegeta, Dodoria, Zarbon, Recoome, Burter, Jeice, Captain Ginyu and Bardock. * Mr. Satan (Hercule in the edited FUNimation dub, and in the games) - None of the other characters "flinch" when hit by his melee attacks (not even when fighting another Mr. Satan). * Majin Buu - All of Buu's forms recover health slowly over time. In the game, a base character can have multiple "forms" to choose from on the character select screen (for example, Perfect Cell is a different "form" from 1st-form Cell, but they are both selected from the base Cell character). In total, there are 56 different "characters," with 90 different "forms" in total. The game had the largest roster of playable characters in the franchise's history until Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi 2: Game modes Evolution Z 7 slots for Z-items, but the stronger characters can have as little as 3 slots. There are Z-items that will increase a players Z-item slots, but the number of slots cannot exceed 7. Some Z-Items can be fused together to make new abilities and even characters. Z Battle Gate The story mode of the game, Z Battle Gate, progresses similar to the story modes in previous games. Players can select battles from different sagas and proceed through the story of Dragon Ball Z. The battles are bookended, with players given an objective to accomplish such as finishing the battle with a certain special move or within a certain amount of time. The story mode branches out, allowing for a few battles that were not originally in the story. Dragon Balls can be found inside the destructible environment. After clearing some gates, an extra fight may or may not be unlocked. It also shows two new stories when the movie and Dragon Ball GT villains fight the Z Fighters and a tournament which involves Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z characters. Ultimate Battle This new mode pits whichever fighter the player chooses against 100 characters. There are winning points and ranks in this mode. Depending on how the battle went, players get positive or negative winning points. However, if the player ends up with no winning points, the game is over and the player must start back at Rank 100 (the game starts off at Rank 100). Occasionally, a different fighter (always secret characters) will "break in" (interrupt the fight before it begins). Players get more winning points for defeating them, but lose more than usual if they do not defeat them. Also, if the player wins five straight normal fights, someone five ranks ahead will offer a challenge. Completion of this challenge moves the player five ranks up. World Tournament Similar to the same mode in the Budokai series, the player can enter a world tournament and try to win their way to the top. There are three levels of the basic tournament and a Cell Games mode (which is hosted by Cell). Since characters can fly, characters can leave the perimeter of the arena, but will be called for ring-out if they touch the ground. There are no restrictions to the Cell Games mode, but the last match of the Cell Games mode is always against Perfect Cell. Since there is no money awarded in this game, the prize for winning a World Tournament is a Z-item. The World Tournament mode can be played with several entrants, but if there is more than one human player, then no prize will be awarded. Character Illustrations A unique feature not featured in any of the other Budokai games is Character Illustrations. They list English and Japanese voice actors as well as detailed profiles for all currently unlocked characters. The Character Illustrations reveals the Great Ape featured in Budokai Tenkaichi without armor to be a generic Saiyan warrior, and not any characters in the series (Goku or Gohan). Voice cast Localization differences Further confusing fans in North America, Atari's domestic release of the game does not feature the same music found in the original Japanese version. While Sparking! features actual music from Dragon Ball Z (and two other pieces from the Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT where appropriate) as composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi, the American release of the game features recycled music from the Budokai series (composed in Japan by Kenji Yamamoto). While no official explanation was ever given for the musical differences, as FUNimation Productions did not use the original Japanese score in their "reversioning" of the TV series for an English dub (though they did indeed use it for their English dub of the original Dragon Ball TV series), many fans speculate that contractual issues came into play. Despite not featuring the original Japanese music, the American release of the game allows for selectable English (FUNimation Productions cast) and Japanese voices, while retaining the English-language written dialogue (as adapted from Steven J. Simmons' translation from the original Japanese version's script). However, there are known (un-fixed) bugs in the American version that cause pieces of English and Japanese spoken dialogue to cross over into whichever selection the player is using at times. (Super Saiyan Trunks in his battle suit (Fighting) speaks Japanese during the Finish Buster, and Super Saiyan 4 Goku also speaks Japanese when he defeats Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta). A second language related bug causes the game to start with the English voice track upon every boot-up, regardless of the user's preferences towards the matter. Although if the user previously selected Japanese before saving their game data, the Japanese track will indeed be highlighted as active during the next play session, despite being very much inactive. As a result, users favoring the Japanese voice work are forced to unselect and then reselect the Japanese language option every time they turn on the game. Other bugs include textual mistakes such as the Character Illustrations, with one example being the misplacement of the word "how" where the word "who" should have been in one of the profiles. Instead of saying it was Bibidi who made Buu, they said Babidi, who was Bibidi's son. And strangely, even though the game uses Dub names (For example, Launch as opposed to Lunch), Bulma's daughter is referred to Bra rather than Bulla. It also states that Fat Buu is killed for good when he absorbs Bebi's Revenge Death Ball in GT, instead of stating that he fuses with Uub and forms Ubuu/Majuub. Also, there is a mistake which refers to a dub voice actor, under "Kid Goku's" profile it states that the American voice is played by Sean Schemmel, when he is actually played by Stephanie Nadolny. Also, in addition to the obvious language translation, the game's cover art and logos are different in each country (apart from the Japanese and European versions, in which the only difference is the Sparking/Budokai Tenkaichi name labels). Trivia *Evil Buu is referred to as "Majin Buu (Pure Evil)". Also, unlike in the anime (and also unlike the game's sequels) his voice is unusually high-pitched when he says "Buu!" (he doesn't talk at all in the sequels, but his voice is clearly more accurate to the anime) *If you are Frieza (2nd Form) and you use Pleasurable Frieza Time, Frieza will say "I'll show you HELL!" *If he is the second player before a battle, Jeice says "Don't play stupid with me, wanker!" In both sequels, this is adjusted so the word "wanker" is cut out. However, you can clearly tell he was cut off when he says "Don't play stupid with me!" *Though uncut versions of movies and anime refer to him as Mr. Satan, all games refer to him as Hercule. *This is the only one of the Tenkaichi games to use just one life bar, though it has a much more considerable amount of health. *This is the first Budokai-style game to include all the members of the Ginyu Force. *The voices of Vegeta and Zarbon follow those of the remastered FUNimation episodes rather than the original FUNimation episodes, which differ considerably (and ironically they are both voiced by Christopher Sabat) *In the character selection screen, Broly's name is misspelled "Brolli". *If a player plays any tournament in the game with Master Roshi, the host (or Cell if one plays the Cell Games) will refer to him as "Turtle Hermit" *When Super Saiyan 4 Goku defeats Super Saiyan 4 Vegeta, he will speak in Japanese. *When Super Saiyan Trunks (armor) uses a Finish Buster (English voices), he will say it with his Japanese voice. *This is the only game in the ''Budokai Tenkaichi'' series where Captain Ginyu can switch bodies with his featured opponent. *When you use an afterimage-based attack and the other persons uses a high speed rush, if you charge at them to dragon clash, you will afterimage out of the way and the other person will keep hitting you until you press X. They will eventually get a 999 hit combo, and then it will restart from zero. *This is the only game where you can touch the ground in the World Tournament Stage, as well as touching the roof of the building and going behind the walls near the entrance. In the later two sequels, you float above the grass (except for non-flying characters in Tenkaichi 2) and the wall/roof section is blocked off, but you can still be hit to the ground. In Raging Blast 2, however, you never hit the ground unless you specify Ring-Out in the rules option. *This game was released in the US in 2005 and featured Janemba, even though Dragon Ball Z: Fusion Reborn was not translated into English until 2006. Gallery External links *Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Official page from PlayStation website *"Sparking!" Official Website *IGN coverage *Gamespot DBZ:BT Website *Daizenshuu EX - List of playable characters (with images) *GameWinners.com- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Cheat Codes *GameFAQ.com- Dragon Ball Z: Budokai Tenkaichi Cheat Codes Category:Dragon Ball games Category:Fighting games Category:Video Games Category:Video games where Android 16 is playable Category:Video games where Android 17 is playable Category:Video games where Android 18 is playable Category:Video games where Android 19 is playable Category:Video games where Baby is playable Category:Video games where Bojack is playable Category:Video games where Broly is playable Category:Video games where Burter is playable Category:Video games where Captain Ginyu is playable Category:Video games where Cell is playable Category:Video games where Cell Juniors are playable Category:Video games where Chiaotzu is playable Category:Video games where Dabura is playable Category:Video games where Dodoria is playable Category:Video games where Dr. Gero is playable Category:Video games where Frieza is playable Category:Video games where Future Gohan is playable Category:Video games where Future Trunks is playable Category:Video games where General Tao is playable Category:Video games where Gogeta is playable Category:Video games where Gohan is playable Category:Video games where Goku is playable Category:Video games where Goten is playable Category:Video games where Gotenks is playable Category:Video games where Great Apes are playable Category:Video games where Guldo is playable Category:Video games where Janemba is playable Category:Video games where Jeice is playable Category:Video games where Kid Buu is playable Category:Video games where Krillin is playable Category:Video games where Majin Buu is playable Category:Video games where Master Roshi is playable Category:Video games where Mr. Satan is playable Category:Video games where Nappa is playable Category:Video games where Piccolo is playable Category:Video games where Raditz is playable Category:Video games where Recoome is playable Category:Video games where Saibamen are playable Category:Video games where Super 17 is playable Category:Video games where Evil Buu is playable Category:Video games where Super Buu is playable Category:Video games where Tien Shinhan is playable Category:Video games where Trunks is playable Category:Video games where Vegeta is playable Category:Video games where Vegito is playable Category:Video games where Videl is playable Category:Video games where Yamcha is playable Category:Video games where Zarbon is playable Category:Video games where Bardock is playable